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Mr Singham said that Britain can make the EU more submissive instead of stubborn by starting talks with rival trade blocs and ripping up Mr Barnier's negotiating schedule.

He explained: "Once you are in these European institutions, as you can see, it is very difficult to leave them.

"Since there are significant gains out there, I would do the following things: I would have a single mind over the whole independent trade policy.

"I think we made quite a lot of mistakes by not having that.

"In other words, your WTO transitions, your deals with other countries, your unilateral decisions. All of this affects the EU relationship.

"There are massive interaction effects between these things, so you need a single mind over it.

"The EU would be much more compliant and amenable to the proposals that the UK government will make if they know they are not the only game in town, if the UK is negotiating with others.

"We would get a better forward process, and we would get a framework for a future trade arrangement based on an advanced trade agreement with maximum regulatory recognition on day one."

Mr Singham, who serves as Director of International Trade and Competition Unit at the IEA, also criticised Theresa May and her cabinet for a catalogue of mistakes over the past two years.

He told the BBC: "There has not been enough attention made as to what we want from this process.

"We have allowed ourselves to be boxed into the EU battlefield and their negotiating mandate from the beginning.

"If you allow yourselves to be entirely on their battlefield, you will lose.

"Had we put text on the table at the Lancaster House speech, saying we know it will be an advanced trade deal, these are the chapters on what we would like to negotiate on, they would have accepted it.

"We should say, we are going to advance on all other fronts, we are going to negotiate with the US, which we are legally able to."

Mr Barnier has said that the Chequers proposals present a threat to the European project and has expressed his strong opposition.